3 ms·
The author got very close, but missing the forest for the trees. What a diagram really needs is a purpose. A clear need for the information to be conveyed. Wh
by bux93 2y ago
The author got very close, but missing the forest for the trees.
What a diagram really needs is a purpose. A clear need for the information to be conveyed.
Who's to say that unlabeled arrows are a bad thing? Or that there's too much on a diagram? That depends on how it's used! What it's for.
Adding context and explainers is certainly a Good Thing, but again, without an overarching reason for the diagram to even exist - who cares?
Diagrams are a communication tool. No more, no less. The vast majority aren't up-to-date, complete or even completely accurate; for the same reason roadmaps aren't, let alone the map of the London Underground.
- harrall 2y agoYeah, you need know your audience and make different diagrams for different reasons and different people. Once you come at it like “I want to teach someone this concept and have them enjoy the journey,” you’ll make ungodly good presentations :)
- vishnugupta 2y ago> Diagrams are a communication tool. For me it’s primarily a tool that aides and shapes my thinking. I start sketching out diagrams to discover dependencies, edge cases, and so on. Most of what I draw I don’t share. Even during brainstorming sessions I’ve found immense use of diagrams, they cut out so much noise.
- adiabatichottub 2y ago> Diagrams are a communication tool. No more, no less. The vast majority aren't up-to-date, complete or even completely accurate... In industrial process engineering, diagrams of process flow and instrumentation are literally part of "The Plan". They are included with architectural, mechanical, and electrical drawings; signed of by professional engineers and jurisdictional authorities; and passed to contractors to build. If there's a need to deviate from "The Plan", it gets documented and then a revision is created. It has always surprised me how software as an industry gets away with sketchy documentation
- adiabatichottub 2y agoI should add, Los Alamos National Labs has a great set of engineering drawing examples: https://engstandards.lanl.gov/Dwgs_Details.shtml https://engstandards.lanl.gov/Dwgs_Details.shtml
- chasd00 2y ago> It has always surprised me how software as an industry gets away with sketchy documentation very true, the best documentation i've seen isn't even drafted until after the software is already in production.
- magicalhippo 2y agoOn the flip side, few things end up like planned. Customers don't even know how their systems work, and only discover the edge cases they had handled in the old system when they discover it suddenly not working in the new system, and so on. When I ask customers "does X ever happen" and they say "no, never", I now assume that means "possibly, but seldom". If I need to make sure, I drill them hard on it. I've been in meetings where a line manager doesn't know that one of the workers they manage performs a critical business operation daily, without which the whole thing would grind to a halt. That's one level up. No wonder those who decide, many levels above that, have no idea and get it wrong.
- icedchai 2y ago"Agile" has only made this worse.